Eden

"I've thought about it but, well, hell, there's no one around here I want to get that close to. I mean I have you and-" Samantha felt tears start to collect in her eyes. She tried to pull away from Tom.

When Tom felt her try to get up he tightened his grip holding her securely against him. He looked at her and continued, "Stop it, Sam. Damn it, I'm trying to answer your question here. Like I said, there is no one around here I would consider for a mother of my children. All the available women are skanks. After you came I even quit thinking about other women. I just assumed after you decided to stay and we added onto my house that-,"

Samantha stopped struggling against Tom. There was a hint of a smile in her eyes now. They glistened either from her unshed tears or happiness. She looked deeply into Tom's eyes and said, "And what?"

"Well, I thought we were together now and maybe we would be a permanent couple. OK DAMMIT, I've been thinking about asking you to marry me but the time just hasn't seemed right up to now. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"No, not exactly Tom. That's a pretty damn poor way to ask a woman to be your wife. That is what you were asking isn't it? You want me to marry you and make some babies?"

"Yes, damn it. That's what I want. Now quit playing your damn feminine games and answer the damn question. Are you going to marry me or not?"

Samantha laughed and said, "Yes, Tom, I'll marry you but I'm pretty damn upset about that sorry proposal. You sounded just like a damn soldier instead of a lovesick Romeo. Where's the romance and the ring? When were you going to stare soulfully into my eyes and get on your knees to beg me for my hand in marriage?"

"Well, Sam, I guess you get what you got. You know I love you to death but I AM a soldier. I'm not a touchy feely kind of guy but I would give my life for you and you know it."

Sam's house never did get built. She and Tom just used her land as it was and turned his small earth shelter home into their castle equivalent. Beginning sixteen months after his proposal of marriage it became the center of their family. They raised three children, two boys and a girl along the small stream. One boy and their daughter followed in their footsteps and made the military a career. The other boy took over the back hoe business and expanded it. He built his house on Samantha's twenty acre plot. After the children left the home, Sam and Tom lived out their remaining years in the house beside the stream. They never stopped enjoying their little plot of Eden and watching the peaceful flow of the stream past their front porch.